Key to the Heart
by Raine Inozori
Summary: Rinoa was getting a little out of hand at home, so her father sent her to Balamb Garden to learn some discipline and respect, as well as how to be a soldier. But what happens when something happens that is completely out of his control?
1. Chapter 1

Rinoa sighed as she stood at the train station in Deling City. She would get on the train headed for Balamb, and then she would either get a ride, or walk to Balamb Garden. Her father, General Caraway, had decided to send her there to become a SeeD. When she had asked why, the general had replied that she was getting too out of hand with her resistance faction in Timber. He was a military member, who also made him a member of the government, and she was a member of an anti-government faction. In other words he was just sending her there to teach her discipline and to keep her from getting in trouble.

All these thoughts ran through her mind, as she was waiting for the train to arrive. She was snapped out of her thoughts however, when she heard a loud screeching noise. When she looked up to see what it was, she realized that the train had arrived.

Sighing again, she slowly made her way onto the train once it had come to a complete stop, and the doors had opened; letting everyone who was currently one the train, get off. Soon after she got on, along with everyone else who was waiting for the train, it started to move.

Along the way, she silently wondered if she could just get off at Balamb, and run away before she even got to this Balamb Garden. She obviously didn't want to go there. She didn't think that going to some school to become a trained mercenary was very appealing. They probably did a lot of training there, so she thought that she would have to be sweating all day. That definitely wasn't her idea of fun. Not to mention that everyone there had probably been there since they were young children, and she didn't want to be behind everyone. They knew things that she didn't, and she would probably be treated like an idiot since she would be totally ignorant of everything.

So she made up her mind. Once the train let her off at Balamb, she would walk all the way back to Timber to join the rest of her friends from the faction without telling General Caraway. That way he would think that she was learning how to be a mercenary, but in reality she would be helping the Forest Owls. She had never listened to her father before so why should she start now?

She continued to look out the window and watched the scenery rush by. She felt her stomach fill with butterflies from being nervous. The train had started to slow, which got her thinking about her plan. She didn't know if her father would have anyone waiting for her. She started to have doubts. Her father has always been a very thorough man, so it wouldn't be surprising. She picked up her rather small backpack full of stuff that she would need.

She stood up, and walked out of the train with everyone who had to get off at this particular stop. And sure enough, once she stepped out of the train, three people in black suites walked up to her. Two of them were big burly looking men, and the other was a rather petite girl.

"Miss Caraway, we are here to safely escort you to Balamb Garden." The biggest man said, without the slightest hint of a smile.

Rinoa inwardly cringed at the fact that they called her 'Caraway'. She didn't bother correcting him though.

She should have figured that her father would send people to make sure that she got there. She knew she definitely couldn't fight off the men. Hell, she would be lucky if she could take on the small girl. The girl didn't look like much, but Rinoa knew better than to judge a book by its cover. This woman was probably a very skilled fighter.

Rinoa nodded in resignation, and motioned for them to lead the way. They did so, and led her to a military type car. It was small, but looked like it could crash into an airplane and win. She sat in the back seat while the two gigantic men got in front. The smaller of the two was the one driving though. The small woman was sitting next to her. Rinoa finally got a chance to take a look at her.

She had beautiful golden hair that Rinoa was a little envious of. It looked so soft. It was pulled up into a sort of bun in the back, and off the sides her bangs were down, framing her face. She had sky blue eyes, and she wore glasses. They weren't the kind of glasses that her huge on someone's face either. In fact she looked rather good with them. If you gave her the right attire, she would probably resemble a school teacher.

Quite suddenly, she turned to look at her. "Don't worry. "You'll like Balamb Garden. Everyone is very supportive and you won't be that far behind. We don't just learn fighting. We also learn investigation so that we can spot things that others wouldn't. There isn't always a clear trail to the target, and we have to find them based on clues." She said. She seemed to be able to tell that Rinoa was nervous.

Rinoa nodded. "I see." She said. "In about a year, after your training begins, you'll be able to take your SeeD field exam to see if you're ready to become a SeeD." The woman continued. Rinoa nodded in understanding. Normally the age limit to become a SeeD was age sixteen and up. She was older than that, so she was able to take it after about a year of training.

It wasn't long before they made it to Balamb Garden, and as soon as the car was parked in the paring lot, she was brought into the center of the school, and into an elevator. By this point, the woman was the only one with her. The two guys from earlier had gone off somewhere. Once they got to the top level she was shown into the only room up there.

"Thank you, Quistis," Said an older man, in a chair behind a desk. The woman, now known as Quistis, did some sort of weird salute before he dismissed her, and she walked away.

The man looked to Rinoa with a friendly smile on his face. "Well, Miss Caraway-""please call me Rinoa Heartily." Rinoa interrupted. She hated her father's last name with a burning passion. Surprisingly the man wasn't offended, and he just nodded, keeping the same friendly smile. He then handed her a bundle of clothes off of his desk. "This is your uniform. You will start classes tomorrow morning. There is a schedule in the clothes with the key to your dorm room. It also says your dorm number on your schedule." He said.

Rinoa nodded, and took everything he had given her back to the dorm number on her schedule. Once she was there, she took out the key and un-locked the door. Since classes were already over for the day, she lie on the bed. She would un- pack later tomorrow. The only thing she bothered un-packing was her alarm clock. She set it to the appropriate time, before falling asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry, that it took me so long to update. But school has been keeping me really busy, so i didn't have much time. But I'm on spring break, so i'll have a bit more time, but only until next monday. Oh, and one of you asked who the two SeeDs were supposed to be in the previous chapter. But they weren't anyone, they were just some random people that i made up. Except for the girl. The men weren't anyone though. And thanks for all the positive reinforcment. This is my first story, and i'm glad everyone is liking it. And i don't think i mentioned it in the previous chapter, but i do not own anything Final Fantasy.

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**Key to the Heart**

**Chapter 2**

_She was standing in the middle of a forest. She looked looked around, to take in her surroundings. There wasn't much to the place, except trees all around her, and a somewhat large boulder a little ways behind her. She looked at the ground, and noticed how green the grass was. There wasn't even a single leaf on the ground from any of the surrounding trees. She found this rather odd, and she knelt down to touch the ground. It was soft. It felt more like moss than it did grass. Suddenly she heard, or more like she felt, something behind her. She spun around to see whatever it was, but there was nothing there. She was starting to think that she was going crazy, when she heard a voice whisper on the wind. She couldn't make out what the voice was telling her, but when she blinked the scenery had changed completely. _

_She was now in a small village, and it was raining quite a bit. She felt something adding extra weight on her back, and she looked over her shoulder to see angel wings. She though that they were extremely pretty, and they started to glow slightly. Her arm lifted of it's own accord, and a bolt of lightning struck a nearby house, setting it on fire. Rinoa looked both surprised anfd horrified.. had she done that?_

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Rinoa bolted upright in her bed, and looked around the room she was now in. This wasn't her room back home... but then the memories of the previous day came back to her. She was starting her first day at Balamb Garden: a school for mercanaries. She looked at the clock, and saw that it was five in the morning. That would explain why her room was still incredibly dark. She tried to hold on to what her dream had been about, but it was like trying to hold water in your hands: the harder you try to hold onto it, the more it slips away. Soon she had forgotten what had startled her so in the first place, and she was once again sound asleep.

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Rinoa awoke for the second time and it would be time for homeroom soon, so she quickly got changed into the student uniform that had been given to her by the headmaster the previous day. She had to admit, it didn't look that bad on her either. She was soon out of her dorm, but she made sure that she had the keycard on her before closing it. She was able to make it to homeroom just a second before the bell rang. It was on the second floor, and those elevators only go so fast you know. Also it didn't help that this was her first actual day of class. She was introduced in front of the class because she was a new student, but it was homeroom, so it didn't really matter. At least they stayed in the same classroom all day. Once she had taken her respective seat, she noticed a shadow above her. When she looked up to see who it was she was surprised to see a rather cheerful looking girl with short brown hair that curled outwards at the ends.

"Hi there. I'm Selphie. Who are you?" The girl, designated as Selphie asked, as she pushed someone out of their seat so that she could sit down next to Rinoa.

Rinoa chuckled at the girls actions, before deciding to answer. "I'm Rinoa. Pleased to meet you Selphie."

The other girl just nodded with a big grin on her face. "You too." she replied, her smile never faltering. "So where are you from?" Selphie asked after a slight pause.

"Deling City." Rinoa answered.

"Oh, Deling City, that's kind of far. Don't you miss you're family?"

That question hit a nerve as she had never been close to her father, and her mother was dead. Of course, Selphie would know nothing about that, so Rinoa did her best to hide the sad look in her eyes, as she shook her head. "No... My father and I never really got along too well."

"Oh. Well I transfered here from Trabia Garden, and my family is still in that area. I miss them a lot, but I get letters and phone calls almost every day."

the girl seemed oblivious to the sadness that had flickered across Rinoas' face, and she was glad for it. The last thing she needed was probing questions from this girl. Not that she didn't like her, on the contrary, she liked her a lot. Rinoa didn't think that a mercanary would be capable of such a bubbly attitude. Soon though, the bell rang for the start of their first class, and Selphie was forced to go back to her own desk. Lucky for Rinoa though, their first class was all about monsters. Such as their weaknesses, strengths, etc. Rinoa knew almost all of this, because she had to fight a lot of monsters as the leader of The Forest Owls back home. The instructor called on her a few times, and Rinoa got all of the questions right. The instructor seemed quite impressed, and even more so when she found out that Rinoa had never been to a Garden before.

Their second class was, believe it or not, History. Of course it wasn't the traditional History class where you learned about the history of the world, but they learned about the Histories of all the Gardens. Rinoa actually found it quite fascinating, especially since all of the Gardens had coincided at one point in time. Rinoa started gaining a bit more confidence about coming here. So far all she had to do was take notes, though she knew that they would probably have some sort of training during the day. After all, with no hands on experiance how could they be good mercanaries?

History class, and the rest of the day passed in a blur, since so far all she had to do was take notes. But eventually it was time for their last class. The instructor told everyone to get their weapons from the dorms, and then meet back in front of the Training Center. Most of the students had brought their weapons with them; but some, like her, had forgot them in their dorms. Rinoa quickly hurried to her dorm to retrieve her weapon, and she made it a point to be the first one, out of the students who forgot their weapons, to be back in front of the Training Center with the rest of the class.

Once the whole class had assembled, they were given their assignment. They had to single-handedly take down at least six monsters. This would be a big feat for Rinoa since she had never done so alone. She always had Zone and Watts to help her. But she was positive that if anything got out of hand, the Instructor would come and help. She didn't wish for that to happen however, because she might deduct points. Soon enough they were told to go fight. She made sure not to go too far from the instructor, so that she wouldn't have to carry back proof. She didn't need to wait to long though, as six monsters came at her... AT ONCE. Rinoa's eye twitched. Was that even possible? She sighed, and readied her weapon.

The monsters wasted no time in attacking her. It was a green plant-like monster with tentacle-like appendages coming out of it's side. The first one ran at her, flailing it's 'arms' she assumed. Rinoa jumped out of the way just in time. She quickly took aim, and fired her Pinwheel weapon at the creature. She was surprised to seethat she sliced it right through it's head, killing it instantly. That was such a lucky shot, she doubted that she would be able to duplicate it. Then another one of the creatures attacked her from the front, while another one tried to put her to sleep from behind. Rinoa noticed this, and immediately jumped over the one attacking from the front. She wasn't able to make it all the way over, so she used her hands and feet, to push herself over the creature. She landed behind it, and the one that tried to put her to sleep accidentally got it's partner. Rinoa quickly stood up and turned around. She fired her pinwheel weapon, point blank, at the creature. It sliced right through it's head, and since it was such a close range, it continued to the second one, and sliced through that ones' head too. All of a sudden somthing from behind struck her in the back of the head. She was dazed, but not knocked out. She quickly turned around to address the situation, when her vision became brighter. she noticed the people around her stop and stare, as her vision slowly faded to black.

She came to in, what seemed to her a few seconds, but she couldn't tell for sure. All she knew was that the remaining three monsters were dead, and everyone was staring at her like she were some attraction at the zoo. Some people looked scared, the others looked surprised. The Instructor was a combination of both. The instructor took a few steps forward.

"Everyone, Class is ending early. Go to your dorms. You all pass for today." she said.

Everyone then hurried on their way, Rinoa included. She was expecting the Instructor to stop her, but she didn't, so she just continued on her way. Once she got to her dorm, she hung up her weapon, and took a nice warm shower. Since the dorms included a mini bathroom so the students could bathe in private, this was a very welcome fact. Afterwards Rinoa got dressed into Pajamas, and went to bed with a million questions buzzing through her head. What had happened today? Why did everyone look scared? and was there anything wrong with her? were just some of the questions that she had. She soon drifted off to sleep, and wondered no more.


End file.
